I think Zapier is a killer service. Also if you haven’t seen IFTTT you should do that. It’s kinda what like what Apple is to PC, IFTTT is to Zapier. Zapier is much more feature rich and has way more integrations, 250+. IFTTT calls them channels, and has 70 at the time of writing.
I like these services because they aim to simplify connecting the web. Have you ever programmed an API only to have it change sometime in the future and make you look like a hack? Zapier and IFTTT help manage these problems for you. I can’t help but imagine they are working directly with the API teams across all their partners to increase the quality and resiliance of their API’s. With the weight and authority they can bring to the table it seems like the internet as we know it will be improved. Do you think a lone hacker complaining to Facebook would be able to sway them as much?
Now Zapier and IFTTT provide rules between the services. The latter has a nifty UI for creating a rule. They even let you do some quantitative analysis with varies channels and triggers.
But what if you want to take things the next step? Have more complex rules, multi trigger based rules that are way out of the scope of Zapier?
One option is to use Nebri as the rule engine. This allows you to run far more complex rules from events already happening in your workplace, and then interface with Zapier so it can do what it’s best at. Zapier doesn’t specialize in being a rule engine. Its great at being a connector though. Why not combine them both?
For example, your rule could detect that a client is new, since on the Nebri side of things you had a client onboarding process finish right? We might even know roughly how much cash to expect. So now we run checks on Freshbooks via Zapier to confirm that a) our new client has been billed, b) they were billed enough. You could then even mark their payment amount in your CRM if it’s part of Zapier.
Another example? Let’s say you manage a software company. You can start a release process with Nebri and have everyone run through their proper checklists. Sysadmin tests packages, developer A packages things up, developer B does a code review and so on. After this process completes(let’s say NebriZap detects a certain ticket is closed in Asana or Trello) notify everyone through Hipchat (via Zapier) or Nimbuzz that the release process is complete. Then once it’s done, say confirmed with a special word from the product owner of the release via a group chat Nimbuz, have all the cards in Trello that were tagged for release archived.
That’s just off the top of my head. It’s really exciting to thing about the combinations possible. How about home automation? Upon a certain sales conversion goal as defined in SalesForce, put on a special song and change the lighting at home so someone special can put the cookies in the oven and champagne on ice. You know you would like that.